The Tale of the Tongue-Cut Sparrow special set

Artist's notes on style, materials and inspiration:

The theme of this special set was inspired by a moral fable, The Tongue-Cut Sparrow - a well known Japanese folktale that was made even more popular when it was printed in a chirimen-bon (crepe paper book, with woodblock pictures and text) in the Meiji period and also later translated into English.

The story is worth reading in its full version, however here is a brief summary: There was once a poor old couple, the man was a woodcutter who was honest and kind, but his wife was known to be short tempered and greedy. With no children, the man began to care for an injured sparrow. His wife was not happy with him wasting precious rice feeding the bird, but he took no notice.

One day whilst he was out cutting wood, his wife was doing laundry and had set some starch out. The sparrow ate it, and in her anger, she cut out the bird's tongue and it flew off.

When the old man returned and found the sparrow gone he went searching for it. He found his way to the Sparrow's Inn, a traditional home in a mountain village where a group of sparrows welcomed him and took him to his friend, the sparrow he had cared for. They brought him food, and sang and danced. Just as he was leaving to return home, the sparrows presented him with a choice of a large basket or a small basket as a gift. Being an older man, he chose the small basket as he supposed it would be the least heavy. They told him not to open it until he was home.

When he got back, he opened the basket to find a large amount of treasure inside. When he told his wife that there had been a larger basket, she berated him and rushed off to the sparrow's inn to claim it. Although they warned her not to open it until she was home, she couldn't wait and lifted the lid of the basket on the mountain path home.

Out of the basket came a huge number of monsters, demons and creatures, shocking the old woman into falling down the mountainside - there are of course multiple versions of the tale, some with even worse consequences.

This wooden set picks up on certain elements of the tale - on the wood girl's body is the stylised scenery of the mountain landscape - and the roof of the Sparrow's Inn is seen nestled in that landscape. The bowl of starch is on her head with a little sparrow perched on top - held by a metal pin and unglued so you can turn the little sparrow in different directions. The bowl of starch also has a small removeable wooden spoon in. The large separate sparrow has a ball style head that is separate from the body - so you can turn the head in all different directions and angles to animate the set a little. The basket is a container made from wood and has eight little yokai inside - a red oni, a blue oni, a kamikiri, a chochin obake, a kasa obake, a one-eyed monk, a ghost and a kappa. The basket also appears to be a yokai, with an eye on one side.

The wood girl is turned from tulipwood, and added to with other pieces of timber. The 'basket' and contents and sparrow are all wooden.

The wood girl is approximately 27.5cm in height, including the sparrow on the starch bowl.

PLEASE NOTE: Wood girls should be kept away from water which can damage the wood and painted surface, and also away from direct heat/ sunlight which also can affect the surface colour and the timber itself. SAFETY INFORMATION: NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 9.